


Nerds Can't Dance

by toadst00l



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:02:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24101806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toadst00l/pseuds/toadst00l
Summary: John and Dave have been sent to spend a week at Camp Sburb! John is an anxious guy, and expects to be lonely and miserable. Dave is just happy to get out of the house, but doesn't expect to make many friends. One thing they have in common is that it was most definitely not love at first sight.Chapters are set up from each alternating point of view!
Relationships: John Egbert/Dave Strider
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	Nerds Can't Dance

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t really want to go to camp in the first place. I was just kinda coerced by Dad and my therapist to go over the summer. I feel like those two were always pushing me to do all sorts of stuff I wasn’t comfortable with. Even when I was sure I’d refuse, they would get me to do it somehow, eventually…

Every day leading up to camp, I was stressed. Stressed about packing, about seeming good enough to be friends with, about being left alone with a huge group of people I didn’t know… the anticipation of loneliness in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. 

I don’t like to admit I was gonna miss being away from Dad, but I was. It was the normalcy of having him around I was gonna miss most, I think. I mean, after all, despite all the anxiety, I still knew it’d only be a week. Another thing causing me a bit of fear was how early I was arriving. Dad has to drop me off an hour early, because he had some kind of shoe-shining convention or whatever. Ugh! At least I don’t need to hear about his Dadly bullshit for a week I guess. That was pretty cool.

I felt the familiar pitfall of anxiety in my chest as Dad pulled up onto a dirt road. We were nearly there. My mind was racing faster than fucking Daytona 500. In just a few feet, I peered out the windshield and saw a hand-painted sign, all colorful and rainbowy that read: CAMP SBURB! I was never really sure what Sburb meant, but I assumed it was some kind of acronym. 

I gritted my teeth as Dad rolled along the dirt road in a wide clearing, that I presumed to be the parking lot. Only a few other cars were here, which I expected I suppose… Ugh, this is gonna be so awkward! 

Dad pulled into a parking spot and parked the car. He unbuckled and slapped his hands on his thighs. “Welp!” he said, “let’s get this show on the road, John!” I was clearly a lot less enthusiastic than he was about this whole thing, but I faked a grin. Dad was already climbing out of the car to retrieve my unreasonably large duffle bag. I slammed the door behind me as Dad opened the trunk, hefting out the giant bag with his weak dad arms. He was clearly straining to hold it up.

“Hey Dad… I can carry that,” I said. Dad shook his head. 

“It’s no problem, son. I got it!” Dad replied as he slung the strap of the bag over his shoulder. 

Alright… Yeah, Dad’s stubborn as ever. Not that I wanted to carry that giant fucking bag anyway. So, we went off to the camp office in an awkward, empty camp. There were random buildings strewn about and a dock on the lakeside. I still didn’t see a soul. It was like a ghost town with no one around. 

We awkwardly ambled into the small, cabin-like office building where a woman was sitting. While Dad and the woman chatted and exchanged paperwork and whatever, I looked out the small decrepit window to the left, over Dad’s shoulder. I saw a camp counselor trekking into one of the buildings, kicking up clouds of dirt into the hot summer air. It both felt better and worse seeing one of the people I’d be stuck with for a week in this lonely looking place. 

Before I knew it, technicalities were over and Dad and I were sent away to meet my cabin counselor. My heart was beating out of my chest… I really hoped he was a good person. 

Dad and I were approached by a kind-looking man with tan skin and lok, curly dark brown hair. He wore a somewhat tacky outfit with loose slides for shoes, and a childish name tag around his neck that read “kUrLoZ” with a bunch of sloppily drawn smiley faces around it. He waved casually as he approached and smiled at the both of us.

“Hey guys! I’m Kurloz! You must be John,” he said, forcing eye contact with me. Out of obligation, I smiled and grasped his hand for a handshake. He then turned away to shake hands with Dad, despite the heavy bag on his shoulder. Dad seemed impressed by his firm handshake, and struck up a Dadly conversation with Kurloz as he led us away from the camp’s office. 

“Down here is what we call the boardwalk,” Kurloz explained, pointing out the obvious wood plank path that went down a straight line of small cabin buildings. He led us down the boardwalk, striking up conversation about the beautiful woods and such as we passed cabin 1… cabin 2… cabin 3… cabin 4… and finally cabin 5, where we stopped. 

“And this is where we will be living for the next week!” Kurloz said cheerily, opening the swinging screen door for me and Dad to enter. “The water pressure is surprisingly great, I’ve had one excellent shower already,” Kurloz said, giving a thumbs up to us as we all entered. Dad finally handed over my giant bag, which I unsurprisingly also struggled to hold. “And of course, first camper gets first pick on which bunk you want!” I smiled at this. Thank god I had that advantage at least. 

Kurloz and Dad began chatting amongst themselves while I looked around the cabin, and assessed that the bottom bunk in the farthest corner looked the most cozy, so I plopped my bag at the foot of my new bunk, unzipped it, and pulled out my sleeping bag and pillow. I set up my new bed for the week and sighed. This is where I’d be sleeping… for a week. The windowsill above my mattress had dirt and spiderwebs caked in the corners, paint on the walls was chipping, and a few flies buzzed nearby. Oh well, no going back now.

I sat down on my bunk and waited idly, half zoning out as Dad and Kurloz spoke for a while. I picked up that Kurloz was a pastor-in-training and had a passion for travel. I kind of lost touch when Dad spoke about anything. Before I knew it, Dad was approaching me. 

“Well, son, I gotta hit the road!” he said, ruffling my hair. I waved my arms at him in annoyance, but still smiled about his fatherly affection. “Have a fun week, okay? I’ll be sure to send you letters.” 

“I’ll try my best,” I sighed, “Bye, Dad.” And then Dad left the cabin, his footsteps growing fainter and fainter and fainter until he was gone, and I was left alone with Kurloz. 

“Well John!” Kurloz said, looking at his watch. “It’s gonna be another hour till other campers start arriving. So… you can stay and chill in here, or you could find somewhere else to chill out and wait. I recommend the porch on that big building close to the shore, it’s a good view, and you get a nice breeze,” he said, smiling. 

“Thanks! I’m probably just gonna sit in here for a bit,” I said. 

“Sure thing!” Kurloz replied. “I gotta go finish up some businessy counselor things, but I’ll be in that big center building we walked by if you need me.” And with that, Kurloz left, and I was alone. It… felt weird to be alone in an unrecognizable place in the middle of nowhere.

The only sounds were nature-y noises, like birds and the soft rustles of leaves. I kinda zoned out, sitting there, my gaze boring into the floorboards of the rustic cabin. An hour, huh? I exhaled and turned over to rummage through my bag and find my drawing supplies, then I sat back. For a while, I doodled in my little notebook to get my mind off things. Even still, the whole time my mind raced with improbable scenarios, like everyone hating me or being lonely the whole week and making no friends… And just like that, I heard footsteps going along the boardwalk. I looked up to see someone about my age, a suitcase in tow, walking by my cabin. Oh boy, it was happening, people were arriving. It didn’t feel quite real up until this point…

And so, with that, I stepped out onto the boardwalk and into the sunlight of midday, out to start a strange and confusing week. 


End file.
